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If you are a gamer then you have most certainly heard about DirectX 11 and how it is going to change the face of gaming. If you are like me, then you would be skeptical, but in doing more and more research into DirectX 11 and compatible cards IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve seen first hand what is in store for gamers willing and able to make the upgrade to the new version of DirectX. While we have been hearing about the new version for a long time, we are just now seeing graphics cards being developed to take advantage of the technology that is present, and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s pretty significant. To gloss over the advancements in DirectX 11, Microsoft has released the following features explanations:

Tessellation Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Tessellation is implemented on the GPU to calculate a smoother curved surface resulting in more graphically detailed images, including more lifelike characters in the gaming worlds that you explore.

Multi-Threading Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The ability to scale across multi-core CPUs will enable developers to take greater advantage of the power within multi-core CPUs. This results in faster framerates for games, while still supporting the increased visual detailing.

DirectCompute Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Developers can utilize the power of discrete graphics cards to accelerate both gaming and non-gaming applications. This improves graphics, while also enabling players to accelerate everyday tasks, like video editing, on their Windows 7 PC.

These features sound great, but what do they really mean?Tessellation Tessellation is probably the most significant change in the new DirectX. For those who like realistic looking characters and terrain, tessellation will be king. Basically, it will allow programmers to use more detail in developing game characters and environments. Think of it like going from standard definition to high definition. WeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll now be able to see even the slightest changes in rocks and textures.Multi-threading This will do for games what Windows 7 has started doing for programs. Simply, the multiple cores are there and now we finally are getting a chance to really take advantage of them. Multi-threading will allow us to take full-advantage of the power within each core, thereby allowing programmers to create more-detailed environments without sacrificing FPS.DirectCompute Direct compute will allow programmers to take advantage of the processing power of the graphics GPU. The best way IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve heard this process explained is from David PattersonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s presentation where he explained, Ã¢â‚¬Å“You have a book and a software program designed to count the number of times a certain word is used in that book. Run that program on a CPU (a serial/sequential processor) and it would start on page 1, read the entire book word-by-word, page-by-page until it finished and eventually give you an answer. Give that same problem to a GPU (a parallel processor) that supports DirectCompute and it would tear that book into thousands of pieces, and read through all of them simultaneously.Ã¢â‚¬Â For an even more revealing look at what DirectX 11 brings to the table, check out this video, click . What do you think? noticeably better graphics and improved framerates? Is this enough to get you to pry open your wallet for a new video card?

from my stance Tessalation is gonna be the real console killer, but that aside 2010 seem to be a huge year in the leap of GPU assisted apps, and from what I've read Nvidia banking on the GPU assist feature being it's killer app to reclaim the crown.